Christopher Pearse Cranch
Christopher Pearse Cranch (March 8, 1813 - January 20, 1892) was an American poet, prose writer, and artist. Life Cranch was born in the District of Columbia. He attended Columbian College and Harvard Divinity School. He briefly held a position as a Unitarian minister. Later, he pursued various occupations: a magazine editor, caricaturist, children's fantasy writer (the Huggermugger books), poet (The Bird and the Bell with Other Poems in 1875), translator, and landscape painter. He lived most of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Though not a founding member, Cranch became associated with the Transcendental Club.Gura, Philip F. American Transcendentalism: A History. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007: 7–8. ISBN 0-8090-3477-8 His connection with the Transcendentalists ultimately diminished his demand as a minister. Cranch's caricatures of Ralph Waldo Emerson were later collected as Illustrations of the New Philosophy: Guide. His poetry was published in The Harbinger,''Felton, R. Todd. ''A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England. Berkeley, California: Roaring Forties Press, 2006: 126. ISBN 0-9766706-4-X and The Dial,''Packer, Barbara L. ''The Transcendentalists. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2007: 119. ISBN 9780820329581 and other publications. As a painter, Cranch painted landscapes along the lines of Thomas Cole, the Hudson River school, and the Barbizon school in France. In one foray into historical painting, Cranch depicted the burning of P.T. Barnum's American Museum in New York City. Later in life, Cranch painted scenes from Venice and Italy. Writing by Edgar Allan Poe Christopher Pease Cranch, "The Literati of New York City (Part III)," Godey's Lady's Book, July 1846. Edgar Allan Poe Society, Web, Oct. 23, 2013. About 2 years ago a volume of Poems by Christopher Pease Cranch sic was published by Carey & Hart. It was most unmercifully treated by the critics, and much injustice, in my opinion, was done to the poet. He seems to me to possess unusual vivacity of fancy and dexterity of expression, while his versification is remarkable for its accuracy, vigor, and even for its originality of effect. I might say, perhaps, rather more than all this, and maintain that he has imagination if he would only condescend to employ it, which he will not, or would not until lately — the word-compounders and quibble concoctors of Frogpondium Boston having inoculated him with preference for Imagination’s half sister, the Cinderella Fancy. Mr. Cranch has seldom contented himself with harmonious combinations of thought. There must always be, to afford him perfect satisfaction, a certain amount of the odd, of the whimsical, of the affected, of the bizarre. He is as full of absurd conceits as Cowley or Donne, with this difference, that the conceits of these latter are Euphuisms beyond redemption — flat, irremediable, self-contented nonsensicalities, and in so much are good of their kind; but the conceits of Mr. Cranch are, for the most part, conceits intentionally manufactured, for conceit’s sake, out of the material for properly imaginative, harmonious, proportionate, or poetical ideas. We see every moment that he has been at uncommon pains to make a fool of himself. But perhaps I am wrong in supposing that I am at all in condition to decide on the merits of Mr. C.’s poetry, which is professedly addressed to the few. “Him we will seek,” says the poet — Him we will seek, and none but him, Whose inward sense hath not grown dim; Whose soul is steeped in Nature’s tinct, And to the Universal linked; Who loves the beauteous Infinite With deep and ever new delight, And carrieth where’er he goes The inborn sweetness of the rose, The perfume as of Paradise — The talisman above all price — The optic glass that wins from far The meaning of the utmost star — The key that opes the golden doors Where earth and heaven have piled their stores — The magic ring, the enchanter’s wand — The title-deed to Wonder-Land — The wisdom that o’erlooketh sense, The clairvoyance of Innocence. This is all very well, fanciful, pretty and neatly turned — all with the exception of the two last lines, and it is a pity they were not left out. It is laughable to see that the transcendental poets, if beguiled for a minute or two into respectable English and common sense, are always sure to remember their cue just as they get to the end of their song, which, by way of salvo, they then round off with a bit of doggerel about “wisdom that o’erlooketh sense” and “the clairvoyance of Innocence.” It is especially observable that, in adopting the cant of thought, the cant of phraseology is adopted at the same instant. Can Mr. Cranch, or can anybody else, inform me why it is that, in the really sensible opening passages of what I have here quoted, he employs the modern, and only in the final couplet of goosetherumfoodle makes use of the obsolete terminations of verbs in the 3rd person singular, present tense? One of the best of Mr. Cranch’s compositions is undoubtedly his poem on Niagara. It has some natural thoughts, and grand ones, suiting the subject; but then they are more than half-divested of their nature by the attempt at adorning them with oddity of expression. Quaintness is an admissible and important adjunct to ideality — an adjunct whose value has been long misapprehended — but in picturing the sublime it is altogether out of place. What idea of power, of grandeur, for example, can any human being connect even with Niagara, when Niagara is described in language so trippingly fantastical, so palpably adapted to a purpose, as that which follows? I stood upon a speck of ground; Before me fell a stormy ocean. I was like a captive bound; And around A universe of sound Troubled the heavens with ever-quivering motion. Down, down forever — down, down forever — Something falling, falling, falling; Up, up forever — up, up, forever, Resting never, Boiling up forever, Steam-clouds shot up with thunder-bursts appalling. It is difficult to conceive anything more ludicrously out of keeping than the thoughts of these stanzas and the petit-maître, fidgety, hop-skip-and-jump air of the words and the Liliputian parts of the versification. A somewhat similar meter is adopted by Mr. C. in his “Lines on Hearing Triumphant Music,” but as the subject is essentially different, so the effect is by no means so displeasing. I copy one of the stanzas as the noblest individual passage which I can find among all the poems of its author. 72: That glorious strain! Oh, from my brain I see the shadows flitting like scared ghosts. A 1ight — a light Shines in to-night Round the good angels trooping to their posts, And the black cloud is rent in twain Before the ascending strain. Publications Poetry *''Poems. Philapelphia: Carey and Hart, 1844. * ''Satan: A libretto. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1874. *''The Bird and the Bell, with other poems. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1875.The Bird and the Bell with other poems, Internet Archive, Web, July 18, 2012. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1890. **New York: Arno Press, 1972. *Ariel and Caliban, with other poems. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1887. *Collected Poems of Christopher Pearse Cranch. Gainesville, FL: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1971. Juvenile *The Last of the Huggermuggers, A giant story. Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1855 1856. *Kobboltozo: A sequel to 'The last of the Huggermuggers.'' Boston: Phillips, Sampson, 1857. *''Giant Hunting; or, Little Jacket's adventures. Boston: Mayhew & Baker, 1860. Translated *The Aeneid of Virgil. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1872;The Aeneid (1872), Internet Archive, Web, July 18, 2012. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1914; New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2007. Letters *Leonora Cranch Scott, ''The Life and Letters. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1917. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Results page = au:Christopher Pearse Cranch, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, July 28, 2013. See also * List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poems * Christopher Pearse Cranch in the Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse: "So Far, So Near," " from "Ormuzd and Abriman" *Christopher Pearse Cranch in An American Anthology 1787-1900: "Stanza from an Early Poem" "The Bobolinks," "The Pines and the Sea" *4 poems by Cranch: "The Bobolinks," "December," "The Pines and the Sea," "August" *Cranch, Christopher Pearse (5 poems) at Representative Poetry Online. *Christopher Pearse Cranch at PoemHunter (106 poems) *Christopher Pearse Cranch at Poetry Nook (169 poems) ;Audio / video *Christopher Pearse Cranch at YouTube ;Books * *Christopher Pearce Cranch at Amazon.com ;About *Listing at American Transcendentalism Web *Christopher Pearse Cranch at eNotes. Category:American poets Category:1813 births Category:1892 deaths Category:Harvard Divinity School alumni Category:American artists Category:People associated with Transcendentalism Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:People from Washington, D.C. Category:Transcendentalist poets